Main Street Financial Solutions LLC Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Main Street Financial Solutions LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 66.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 804 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,585 shares during the quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,746,455,000 after acquiring an additional 140,726 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE ACN traded up $4.45 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $288.41. The company's stock had a trading volume of 970,352 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,997,777. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $321.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $348.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.